Democrats call on Trump to cancel Putin summit

All 12 defendants are members of the GRU, a Russian federation intelligence agency within the main intelligence directorate of the Russian military, who were acting in "their official capacities". Trump and Putin, who have never met for an official summit, will hold three sessions before the USA president returns to Washington, D.C., early Tuesday.

"Trump has maybe a little less room to maneuver if he wants to downplay the issue or pretend that it's not real", said Jeffrey Mankoff, a Russian Federation expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Despite his harsh criticism of President Trump's meeting with Putin, Rosenberg is happy with how he has handled North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The press release from McCain's office adds a rare GOP name to that list.

The charges put an even greater spotlight on Trump's treatment of Putin, who has denied making efforts to intervene in the US election that Trump, a Republican, unexpectedly won.

'President Trump must be willing to confront Putin from a position of strength and demonstrate that there will be a serious price to pay for his ongoing aggression towards the United States and democracies around the world. But the mixed messaging has left America's friends and allies confused, particularly after a contentious North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit where Trump questioned the value of the alliance that Putin has long denounced and sought to weaken. "The state of bilateral relations is very bad".

'It is regrettable that the circulation of false information in Washington has become the norm, and that criminal cases are brought for obvious political reasons'.

Russia-U.S. ties have plummeted to post-Cold War lows over the Russian annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, the war in Syria and the allegations that Russia meddled in the U.S. presidential race to help Trump win.

"There should be no one-on-one meeting between this President and Mr. Putin", Warner told reporters Friday. We cannot prevent these attacks but we can make our election infrastructure strong and resilient. But investigators said they did not find evidence Strzok's personal beliefs had influenced the investigation.

The city has a long history of acting as a diplomatic bridge between the US and Russian Federation.

The GOP lawmaker, who is retiring after this Congress, said that he's "pleased Russian Federation is being held accountable for their actions against our country".

Trump was due to meet Putin on in Helsinki on Monday, but democrats and McCain are calling for their meeting to be called off.

National Intelligence Director Dan Coats says the warning lights about cyber threats to USA national security are "blinking red" and the threats are not just around election time.

Coats said US officials are detecting cyber threats targeting energy, water and other infrastructure, aviation networks and manufacturing facilities.

We have been extremely tough on Russian Federation", he said at a joint press conference with British Prime MinisterTheresa May. "Our President has good working ties with the U.S. as well as Russian Presidents", noted the senior diplomat who had earlier handled her country's ties with Moscow.

Democrats pounced on special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's indictment of a dozen Russian military officers for their efforts to interfere in the 2016 US election, with some saying Monday's Donald Trump-Vladimir Putin summit should be canceled.

While Trump said on Thursday that he expects the Helsinki summit to be "just a loose meeting", some at home are hoping it will be a "non-event" with nothing groundbreaking.

"President Trump should cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin until Russian Federation takes demonstrable and transparent steps to prove that they won't interfere in future elections", wrote Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in a statement.

The group has also been accused of stealing the personal information of a number of US voters after managing to hack into an election board.

"Second, the Treasury Department must immediately impose sanctions mandated by Congress on the Russian intelligence officers indicted today", said Menendez of New Jersey.

The indictment of 12 Russians for allegedly hacking the Democratic Party in 2016 appear to be politically motivated, with the goal of spoiling the upcoming Helsinki summit, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Before Friday, 20 people and three companies had been charged in the Mueller investigation.